A Massive Heat Wave Will Hit Europe This Week

Parisians and tourists cool down in the fountains of Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave on June 25, 2019 in Paris, France. France is currently experiencing a heat wave and is put on alert heat wave according to forecasters, the temperatures should rise to almost 40 degrees Celsius in the coming days.

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If you’re planning a trip to Europe this summer you may want to pack a few extras in your suitcase. Namely, you’ll want to pack sunscreen, a fan, and a few dozen water bottles because the temperatures across the continent are expected to exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week and beyond.

According to forecasters at Accuweather, temperatures across France, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Italy could top well above 100 degree Fahrenheit in the coming days. And to make matters worse, experts believe the humidity levels could make it feel much warmer. Truly, this weather will be nothing to mess with.

“I’m worried about people who are downplaying this, who are continuing to exercise as usual or stay out in the sun,” France’s health minister, Agnès Buzyn, said in a statement. “This affects all of us, nobody is a superman when it comes to dealing with the extreme heat we’re going to see on Thursday and Friday.”

Weather experts at Accuweather noted that the extreme heat is the result of a storm system stalling “over the Atlantic Ocean and high pressure over central and eastern Europe.” In turn, the system is pulling “very hot air from Africa northward across Europe.”

To help keep people safe, authorities in France announced they have installed more than 1,000 new drinking fountains across Paris, according to France 24. Officials are also partnering with charities to hand out free water bottles to the homeless. Additionally, France 24 reported, the country will keep public pools and parks open later to allow people to find respite from the heat. It will also open public “cooling stations” during the hottest hours of the day.

As CNN noted, this pattern of extreme heat isn’t expected to go away any time soon. It pointed to a 2018 report by The World Weather Attribution, which said in 2018, "the probability to have such a heat or higher is generally more than two times higher today than if human activities had not altered climate. With global mean temperatures continuing to increase heat waves like this will become even less exceptional."

And, just in case you doubted this trend, Stefan Rahmstorf, head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, tweeted this stat: "The hottest summers since 1500 AD in Europe were: 2018, 2010, 2003, 2016, 2002.”

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A Massive Heat Wave Will Hit Europe This Week

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